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Watt-Cloutier,
Sheila

Chair of
the Inuit Circumpolar Conference since 2002, Sheila Watt-Cloutier
is recognized for her untiring efforts on behalf of Arctic indigenous
peoples worldwide and, in particular, the Aboriginal peoples of
Northern Canada. She champions many critical contemporary issues
including Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), sustainable development,
traditional ecological knowledge, northern education and the impact
of climate change on northern regions among others. Her distinctive
and authoritative voice as an Inuit leader is heard internationally
at the highest political levels as well as at the local level
in northern communities.

In her former
capacity as President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada)
and Vice-President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Watt-Cloutier
played a prominent role during negotiations leading up to and
during the Global Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
in the late 1990s. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada) used
its observer status to lobby, inform and educate participants
during the international conferences sponsored by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). During the second meeting of the
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Nairobi, Kenya in 1999,
Watt-Cloutier presented an Inuit carving of a mother and child
to Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of UNEP, and this powerful
carving came to represent the conscience and heart of the negotiations.

During the
various international meetings of the Global Convention, Watt-Cloutier
and other northern leaders successfully focused world attention
on the impact of Persistent Organic Pollutants on the Arctic region.
These toxic, long-lasting contaminants are carbon-based products
and by-products of industrial activities that originate in Europe,
Asia, the United States and other areas south of the Arctic. Through
the process of condensation and evaporation known as the "grasshopper
effect," POPs travel by air, wind, and water currents and
are deposited in Arctic regions after encountering low temperatures.
POPs (sometimes referred to as the "Dirty Dozen") include
the following 12 pollutants: polychlorinated biphenyls, DDT, furan,
dioxin, lindane, mirex, heptachlor, endrin, toxaphene and chlordane.

While the
impact of these pollutants has largely been construed as an environmental
issue, Watt-Cloutier has identified significant negative ramifications
beyond environmental concerns for Inuit culture, health and traditional
way of life. During the mid 1980s, POPs were detected in alarmingly
high rates in the breast milk and blood of Inuit mothers in northern
Quebec and southern Baffin Island. Subsequent studies revealed
that POPs have a high lipid solubility and bioaccummulate and
biomagnify in the fatty tissues of marine mammals such as beluga
whale and seal - the mainstay of the traditional diet of many
northern peoples. Recent evidence suggests that consuming these
contaminated foods has devastating consequences for human health
including neurological, endocrinological, and behavioral disorders.
Consequences are particularly dire for women as POPs have been
linked to high rates of breast cancer and reproductive disorders,
afflictions and mutations that are additionally transferred inter-generationally
through the placenta and breast milk. Watt-Cloutier asserts that
traditional country foods are an integral part of Inuit culture
and that they play an important role not only in nutrition and
health but also in the maintenance of spiritual, social and economic
values and practices.

Watt-Cloutier
is notable for her adroitness and skill in raising the profile
of northern Aboriginal peoples on the international stage and
in creating effective partnerships between Aboriginal organizations
and governments. She has been particularly active in the area
of sustainable development. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference has
promoted sustainable development since 1986 with the adoption
of a series of strategies and reforms outlined in Towards An
Inuit Regional Conservation Strategy. Through her involvement
with the Sustainable Development Working Group of the Arctic Council
and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Watt-Cloutier helped to
establish links with the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples
of the North (RAIPON). One result of this partnership was a project
strengthening regional governments in Northern Russia and stressing
practical aspects of co-management of land and natural resources.
As president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada), she
coordinated annual humanitarian missions to Russian Aboriginal
groups in Chukotka supported by North American government agencies
and northern organizations such as the North Slope Borough in
Barrow, Alaska. Additionally, Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada)
has implemented sustainable development projects with Mayan and
Garifuna Indians in Belize. Watt-Cloutier emphasizes that sustainable
development is more effectively achieved when projects and policies
bring Aboriginal peoples and organizations together to learn from
one another.

Watt-Cloutier
has stressed the importance of establishing partnerships between
Aboriginal organizations, government agencies and the research
community when addressing the potential impacts of climate change
in the north. She has urged a bridging of the gap between Western
scientific rationalism and the Aboriginal worldview in order that
both perspectives may be brought to bear on the issue of climate
change. Much is unknown about the consequences of climate change
but it is assumed by most scientists that the Arctic is one of
the regions that will be most significantly affected. Watt-Cloutier
has highlighted the role played by traditional ecological knowledge
(TEK) and Inuit wisdom in identifying and investigating environmental
problems including climate change.

According
to Fikret Berkes, Milton Freeman, and other scholars, traditional
ecological knowledge is acquired by Aboriginal peoples through
the establishment of a long and intimate connection with the land.
In the north, TEK can be used to identify changes in sea ice conditions,
animal health and behavior, species density and climatic patterns.
Watt-Cloutier has recommended that traditional ecological knowledge
and other Aboriginal knowledge systems assume a more prominent
role in dealing with current issues including climate change.

Watt-Cloutier
has earned the respect and admiration of her peers and colleagues
who commend her for her passionate commitment to northern Aboriginal
peoples. She has fearlessly entered the realms of Arctic health,
education, environment, politics and culture and demonstrates
how all are inter-related and equally important. She insists that
the world sees the human face- the Inuit face- when contemplating
significant issues affecting the Arctic region.

Biography

Sheila Watt-Cloutier
was born in Kuujjuaq, Northern Quebec, Canada on 2 December 1953.
Her mother, Daisy Watt (1921-2002) was one of Kuujjuaq's best-known
elders and was recognized throughout Nunavik for her skills as
a healer, interpreter and musician. Her brother, politician Charlie
Watt, was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1983 and was made
an Officer of the Order of Quebec in 1984. Watt-Cloutier was sent
at the age of 10 to Nova Scotia and Churchill, Manitoba for schooling.
At McGill University in Montreal, she took counseling courses
as well as occupational and training sessions dealing with education
and human development. In the mid-1970s, she worked as an Inuktitut
interpreter for the Ungava Hospital and worked to improve health
conditions and education in Nunavik over the next 15 years. From
1991-95, she worked extensively as an advisor in a review of the
education system in Northern Quebec resulting in the groundbreaking
report, "Siatunirmut- The Pathway to Wisdom" compiled
and published by the Nunavik Educational Task Force in 1992. Watt-Cloutier
oversaw the administration of the Inuit land-claims body established
under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement as Corporate
Secretary of Makivik from 1995 to 1998. She entered politics in
1995. She has two adult children and a grandson. Her daughter
is a well-known traditional Inuit throat-singer, drum-dancer and
singer. Her son is a pilot and the youngest captain ever employed
by Air Inuit. Watt-Cloutier currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut,
Canada.

Joanna
Kafarowski

See also
Inuit Circumpolar Conference; Persistent organic pollutants
(POPs); Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North
(RAIPON)